Union Says Attacks On Prison Guards Are Up

The labor union representing Illinois prison workers says assaults are way up. AFSCME is asking the state to do more to keep its members safe.

Listen

Listening...

/

1:00

Brian Mackey reports on AFSCME's claims that inmate-on-guard assaults are up in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Cory Knop works at Lawrence Correctional Center, where he says there have been several recent assaults.

He says the union recently complained that just one security officer was assigned to a healthcare unit with up to 30 inmates. The worry was that an officer under attack would not be able to open the security door to let in backup.

Knop says that very scenario played out, and only then did management assign a second officer.

“We’re tired of waiting for our members to be hurt before they do something about it,” Knop says.

John Baldwin, acting director of the Department of Corrections, acknowledges assaults on staff have gone up. But he also says the majority of the increase involves inmates throwing fluids, not physical violence.

“We take staff safety very seriously," Baldwin says.

Baldwin says the department’s staffing level has grown by 11 percent over the past three fiscal years.

He also says some increase in assaults is expected as Illinois changes the way it deals with inmates who have mental illness, but that based on the experience in other states, the trend will improve over time. The state has agreed to improve treatment of inmates with mental health disorders in order to settle a lawsuit.

The Illinois Department of Corrections on Wednesday announced most of its workers have completed mental-illness training. It's part of the settlement in a long-running legal dispute over how Illinois prisons treat inmates with mental-heath disorders.

State prison director John Baldwin says the training will help make working in prisons a safer job.

"Seventy-eight percent of all assaults on staff across the United States are committed by an offender with an identified behavioral health issue," Baldwin says.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to reduce the state's prison population by twenty-five percent in the next 10 years. But the state's budget impasse is putting ex-offenders at greater risk of returning to prison.